Month: August 2021

Horse shoe coat hooks

On By CarynIn Craft

One of the good things that came from the gecko running behind the coat hooks and the coat hooks coming out from the wall as the cat, dog, and I scrambled for the critter, is that it prompted me to find a better way to secure the horse shoe hooks to the wall. I love these hooks that my husband’s cousins made when they were learning to weld. I have four of them and they work great on solid wood. I tried having two on the wall by the back door, and tried to get the tiny nails that would fit in the nail holes to reach far enough into a stud, but they consistently came loose. So now I had to do something sturdier. I combed the garage and found a nice length of 1×4” trim, already painted. But it was shorter than the horse shoes. Hmm. If I set the horse shoes up above the rail, then I would be able to use the tops as hooks as well, increasing the number of usable hooks from two to six. And if I added the other horse shoe I had sitting on the counter, then I would have eight hooks!

Horse shoe coat rack mounted on a painted board

I attached the board to the wall, centering it on the studs, checking level, and running two screws into the studs. Then I took finish nails that had heads large enough to not go all the way through the horse shoe holes and set the metal lined up with the bottom of the board. I used a nail set to tap the nails down into the shoe to keep it firmly attached.

Horse shoe coat rack with an egg apron on a hook, a coat on the top of a horse shoe, and my snake grabber resting on the wood

Now we have a sturdy coat rack! The best part? I only had one trip to the garage. I was able to anticipate everything I would need, gather it, and use it all. It is unusual for me not to have to make a few trips back and forth for forgotten items. (Yes, I did put everything away as soon as I was done!)

Morning of the gecko

On By CarynIn Wildlife

Remember when I mentioned ebbs and flows? Well this morning had a surge of geckos. It started with Izzy the cat pointing out the large house gecko on the wall in the house.

Izzy spots the first gecko

Izzy (cat), Missy (dog), and I (human) chased the gecko all over the wall, behind a coat rack, which chose that moment to come loose from the wall (I’ll address the fixing of that tomorrow), then down on the floor. Izzy would trap it, then I would push her back and try and scoop up the poor gecko, the gecko would leap from my hand and we would repeat the actions. Missy just wanted in on the action. After the poor gecko was tired out, I was finally able to get him in my hand and take him outside. Good news, his tail was still intact!

The moment before freeing the house gecko outside

The next gecko, a tiny little thing on the window going to the catio was not so lucky. Izzy caught and ate him. The third gecko my eldest found at the front door was able to escape cat and human clutches and remain free in the outdoors. The previous week held no gecko chasing frenzies. Ebbs and flows.

Wheat roll experiment

On By CarynIn Bread

My youngest asked me for a roll challenge (what I would have called a taste-test, but we have used the You Tube inspired “challenge” idea to get her to eat many foods that she normally wouldn’t). My eldest suggested that this was a good excuse to bake bread. I think they both rather like that I have been baking fresh bread with Heritage Wheat weekly! So for this roll challenge I looked for a recipe that used whole wheat, and I found a really good one here.

I divided the recipe in two, and added mini chocolate chips to one half, and left the other half plain. (The whole purpose of asking for a roll challenge was to get me to make bread with chocolate in it!) To distinguish between flavors I made the chocolate up as simple rolls, and the plain as knots. To add to the challenge, after brushing the rolls with egg, I sprinkled turbinado sugar on half the chocolate rolls. We now had three variations for our challenge!

Wheat rolls for a roll “challenge”

My youngest loved the chocolate chip rolls, but the rest of us preferred the plain. I do think that I need to learn more ways to shape rolls!

Tiny egg

On By CarynIn chickens, eggs

One of these things is not like the others.

Regular 48g egg (left), Tiny 22g egg (right)

I had a bit of a surprise in the nest box! A tiny little egg, less than half the size of what my hens usually lay. I’ve read that sometimes there are hiccups in the egg development process and eggs are produced without a yolk resulting in what some people call “fairy eggs”. I had to see if that was the case with this egg!

Tiny egg with tiny yolk

I broke it open and the egg did in fact have a yolk, just very small. A small perfect little egg. How interesting.

One ride at a time

On By CarynIn dog

We are still working on getting our youngest dog, Missy, able to ride in a car without a nervous breakdown. We discovered after her last vet appointment that a trip to the treat store for a pup cup (whipped cream in a small cup) made her outlook completely different! After her treat, she didn’t shake at all the rest of the way home. Hmm. So about a week later we loaded both dogs up and did a trip for treats, and only treats. She rode on my eldest’s lap in the passenger seat on the way there (which is where she has historically been the most comfortable), but then on the way back sat with Griffin on his chair, which shows an improvement in her anxiety (and he is such a good boy to put up with it!) The plan is to repeat this treat-only trip about once a week, without introducing anything more scary (like getting out of the car or side-quests).

Missy does not like car rides, but we are working on changing that, very slowly

We did get some anti-anxiety meds from the vet, which do work in the car, but don’t work at home. On the meds (which we didn’t use for this trip), she is calmer in the car, but at home she is just as barky, but more sleepy. Medicated, she wakes up barking when her ears pick up a strange noise, then it takes a little longer for her brain to engage and stop barking. So the meds will be saved for long car rides. By the way, we do have a middle seat insert for the middle row. We will put that in for the next trip to give Griffin a little more room!